Shingai Sentai Monstranger: Lowlander
by The Threat
Summary: Episode 2 of my 'Monstranger' series. With their favorite Mascot gone, Cefabew enlists the help of an outsider to deal with the Monsters.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: based on the format owned by Toei Company.

* * *

People dressed in black, children crying their eyes out, and a man in a robe addressing the people, while a black car arrives, carrying a brown wooden box, large enough to hold one body, that is just two feet taller than the average person present. It was a coffin, which was being carried by four others, who were not only as tall as the person inside, but all looked like anything but a human being. One of them resembled a turtle, whose shell was green, but his skin was brown. Another looked like a white kangaroo, who for some reason walked instead of jumped. The third person looked human, except that his head was bloated up, like it was a hot-air balloon. The fact that he was wearing a cowboy hat was the only indication that anyone had that he was a cowboy, as he too wore a black suit. And the fourth person to carry the coffin was a four-limbed bee, who had only one main body instead of a bee's usual three, which had the yellow and black stripes that are always associated with bees. As they carried the coffin to the hole in the ground, which will be the final resting place for whoever is inside it, the man in the long black robe spoke.  
"As the Great Scott teaches us, we should not fear the end. Master King understood this, and lived his life making sure that people will keep smiling until the end."  
Somehow, this didn't make any of the children any happier.  
"The best way to think about him is not by remembering how he died, and instead focus on how he lived." the man continued, "He lived with a kind heart for everyone who has one of their own. To lose sight of that, will do him a great dishonor. Remember that, every time you face your darkest hour."  
With those words spoken, some of the children tried standing tall, as they witness the coffin being lowered into the ground. This is as close to Master King as many of them will ever get, and they want to take advantage of every second.

Once the coffin was down, everyone started to leave. However, while two men in striped shirts started covering the coffin up, three men stayed, looking over their work. One of them was an old man, with long graying hairs. Another was a slightly younger man, who had his head wrapped in band-aids, and needed a crutch to walk. The youngest of the three, whose eyes look bigger behind his glasses, almost looked happy despite the circumstances.  
"Such sadness." the oldest of the three spoke, "I still cannot belief tose monsters could do tis."  
"It's like you said, Dr. Van Helsen." the youngest said, "They're monsters, they don't think like we do."  
"I wouldn't be in this situation if they did." the bandaged man moaned.  
"Can you not make stronger Mascots, Dr. Feuerstein?" Van Helsen asked him.  
"On my payroll?" the wounded man, Feuerstein, replied, "And in my condition? I won't be fast enough."  
"We might not have to." the youngest man brought up, "I spoke to Welles earlier. He told me to tell you this."  
"Tell us what, Dr. Easton?" Van Helsen asked.  
"He may have found someone who lives in the lower regions." the young man, Easton, explained, "Legends have it that he's a man who's been alive for many decades. It is said that during that time, he didn't grow weaker. In face, some dare say that the older he gets, the more powerful he becomes."  
"What is he?" Van Helsen wondered.  
"Unknown." Easton answered, "But everyone who speaks of him, talks about a man of honor, who never backs down, no matter the challenge. Purportedly, he's fought enemies that were more powerful than him, but won none the less."  
"Sounds like just the man we need." Feuerstein laughed, and immediately regretted it as it gave him an agonizing pain.  
"Ten we better get tis man here as soon as possible." Van Helsen declared.  
"Oh, can I do that?!" a squeaky voice spoke.  
All three of them turned to look. Before them stood one of the men who carried the coffin. It was the one that looked like a bee.  
"My dear Noyhe." Van Helsen told him, "We have already lost one Mascot, we cannot lose anotter."  
"But you juzt zaid..." the bee, Noyhe, buzzed, "thiz man iz honorable. He won't kill me, would he?"  
"But he's not a child." Easton said, "He might not be too keen on having a Mascot collect him."  
"Pleaze!" Noyhe begged, "It'z the leazt I can do for Mazter King."  
"I think it's a great idea." Feuerstein said, "I can't go as I'm still recovering. Easton, you're too busy building something that'll keep that Drago lady from controlling our Re-Actives. Isn't that right?"  
"It does take priority." Easton agrees.  
Van Helsen gave this another thought, then finally agreed: "Very well, Noyhe. You can go."  
Instead of simply jumping of joy, Noyhe spread his wings, and started flying around not just these three men, but the two men burying the coffin as well.  
"Stupid insect!" one of them shouted, "Go bug someone else!"


	2. Chapter 2

From an old and abandoned house, in the middle of the woods, a loud tapping could be heard. One tap after another, like somebody was hitting something. After several taps, a squish followed.  
"Keep that up, and you won't have any fingers left to do to hold anything, let alone a hammer." an echoing voice spoke to whoever was causing the tapping.  
The one causing the tapping, turned his head to whoever was looking. His brain, what little there was left of it, could still not comprehend how there could be someone there, and yet not be there. How the man with the echoing voice could look solid, and yet be seen through.  
"Keep that up, and we still won't be able to use the stairs." a female voice sounded from downstairs.  
The see-through man looked downstairs, where he saw the woman who spoke to him. To the casual observer, her asymmetrical body, her half-bloated face and exposed teeth, would give everyone the impression that she's a monster, but not to this man, who then hovered down the stairs: "If you want it to be done faster, why don't you help?"  
"I cannot." the woman replied, holding up her one hand that was somehow larger than the other, which held a book entitled "Modern Mechanics", "If I want to understand technology as it exists today, I have to read up on it as much as possible."  
"Excuse me, Bernard." the see-through man turned as he heard his name called, "Why is she reading about that matter? Don't you know anything about modern mechanics?"  
"That's not my area of expertise, Daguerre." Bernard replied, "I'm a chemist, not a mechanic."  
"But you're still a scientist." the one named Daguerre, who despite his Victorian dress-code looked relatively normal, retorted.  
"Science is more than just one label for all the more complicated things." Bernard explained.  
"So it would appear." a fourth voice sounded, followed shortly by its owner entering the circle the other three had formed, "People today have made gained knowledge we thought only the gods were allowed to know."  
This surprised the woman: "Weren't you a god then? I mean, your name being Setuh..."  
"And according to a famous story, you're the first woman ever, Eva." Setuh emphasized the name.  
"Hey now, no need to make a fuss." a muffled voice sounded.  
"Ivan? Where are you?" Bernard called.  
"Over here." the voice sounded less muffled, and more clearly, so the four of them could more easily see where it came from, which was underneath the stairs. A short man, with only one functioning eye, a huge hump on his back (making him look shorter) and wearing rags for clothes.  
"You have your way of disappearing." Eva remarked.  
"I do?" Ivan seemed unaware of this, "I'm sorry about that."  
"Speaking of disappearing, where's Lea?" Daguerre wondered.  
"I'll go look for her." Bernard suggested.  
As soon as he said it, he hovered his way through the walls.  
"Is this what death is like?" Daguerre asked, "Not being restrained by walls? Or even the absence of stairs?"  
"When you lived and died as many times as I have, you stop asking such questions." Setuh replied.

In a wide spacious room, somewhere at the back of the house, a woman, who looked to be in her twenties, had long black hair, pale skin, and deep red lips, lifted up a sword. Before her stood a wooden puppet. With a calculated move, she stroke it down with her sword. A spring at its bottom allowed it to stand erect again, as if nothing had happened to it. With it back up, she took another swing at it. And another. And another. She tried one more complicated move, but stopped dead, as soon as a familiar face entered her field of vision.  
"Hey! Watch out!" Bernard cried.  
She grinned: "You're a ghost. I can't hit you if I wanted to."  
"True enough." Bernard agreed, "But Lea, what if I was still alive?"  
Lea snorted: "What manner of a swords-woman would I be if I cut you when I did not intend to?"  
Bernard needed some time to think that one through, before he spoke: "Anyway, the others were wondering where you are, so..."  
"Now that you know, you can report back to them." Lea replied, coldly, "If you'll excuse me, I have missed over a century of practice."  
Even though she could not actually touch him, the fact that she reached to push him away was reason enough for Bernard to step out of her way. But as she walked past him, he heard how her feet sounded with every step she took. He looked down, and saw the five-inch heels she wore, that clicked on the surface of the floor.  
"Eh... shouldn't you be wearing more appropriate shoes for practice?" he asked.  
Lea turned her head to look at him, letting those blood-red lips of hers form a bright smile. The same sort of smile an adult would give a child when it said something cute. Bernard squinted his eyes. What did he say that amused her so much?


	3. Chapter 3

As he had agreed before, Noyhe found himself visiting the Lower Lands. The lower he was, the more beautiful everything looked. All the perfect green grass, all the trees, and lots of flowers. He started to feel right at home there. He started buzzing around the flowers, ecstatic about the area, almost wondering why he had never thought of coming here before. Maybe he should apply to Cefabew to transfer here, he thought. But suddenly, something whizzed past him. Startled, he backed away. He looked at what was thrown at him. It was a long metallic thing, which had a cross-like shape. It took him a while to recognize it as a sword. Too long, as he was suddenly surprised by two hands that grabbed him by the throat. As he looked at the man that caught him, he reconsidered transferring to the area. The man didn't look much like a man. His face was almost completely covered in mud, but what little there was still visible of his face showed many scars. It almost even looked like his face was just a mask that hung loosely to his head. His hair was long and muddied, and his clothes were just skins of long-dead animals, giving him a caveman look.  
"What are you?" he asked.  
"Are you the Lowlander?" Noyhe asked him.  
"Who wants to know?"  
"Are you, or aren't you?" Noyhe repeated, "I muzt know. Pleaze?"  
"I don't talk to strangers." the caveman replied, "And you are the strangest thing I have ever seen."  
"I'm only a Mazcot." Noyhe replied, "I may look ztrange to you, but kidz like me."  
The caveman grunted, but let go of Noyhe. He turned around to pick his sword up.  
"Zo you are the Lowlander?"  
"That's what they've called me." the Lowlander replied, "What's it to you? I don't do children."  
"But haven't you fought to protect them before?" Noyhe asked.  
"If you want me to fight for you, you've wasted your time." the Lowlander said, "I don't do this sort of thing anymore."  
"What?" Noyhe could not understand, "But I waz told you're a man of honor! You would do anything to help otherz!"  
"Only because others were hurt by people like me." the Lowlander replied, "But I'm the only one left, so there's order to your world. You don't need me anymore."  
"Yez we do!" Noyhe continued, "Becauze we are dealing with people like you."  
The Lowlander smirked at Noyhe: "Oh really?"  
"Yez!" Noyhe answered, "One ghost, one werewolf, one mummy,..."  
"They are nothing like me." the Lowlander interrupted him, "They are just people who won't accept death when it comes. That is still your problem, not mine."  
He turned around to make his leave.  
"But don't you underztand?" Noyhe flew toward the Lowlander, blocking his way, "The werewolf will tear everyone apart, the mummy will raise an army of dead, the vampire will..."  
"Vampire?" the Lowlander, who had shown complete disinterest before, suddenly became radiant.  
"Yez?" Noyhe was surprised at the Lowlanders sudden change of tone.  
A pause for thought followed, upon which the Lowlander asked: "This vampire, is this by chance someone name Lea Drago?"  
"You know her?" Noyhe was genuinely surprised to hear this.  
The Lowlander's grip on his sword tightened: "We have a history."  
"So you'll help uz?" Noyhe asked again.  
"I'll help you with Drago." the Lowlander answered, "But if those others you mentioned get between us, it will be their loss as well."

Back at the monster's mansion, Bernard returned to his friends: "She's practicing with her sword."  
"Is she now?" Daguerre questioned, "Do people still use swords today?"  
"No." Bernard replied, "Only in sports."  
"Then it looks like her practice may be for naught." Daguerre deduced.  
"That may not be necessarily true." Setuh said.  
"And what leads you to that conclusion?" Daguerre asked.  
"These two really need to learn to simplify their English." Ivan remarked.  
As an answer, Setuh opened up his book.  
"The Necrobiblos?" Eva was astounded at the sight of it, "I thought we're not supposed to even have our eyes on it?"  
"A picture alone should do no harm." Setuh replied, as he showed everyone a drawing of something in the book.  
Everyone looked, but couldn't believe what they were looking at.  
"What is that?" Bernard asked.  
"It's one of the eldest gods." Setuh explained, "While many gods are benevolent, and others malevolent, this one is indifferent."  
"What is that he's holding?" Eva asked, "It looks like a tooth."  
"Because it is made out of one." Setuh explained, "It's made out of a tooth from a much older and much larger god. He uses it as a sword."  
"So you're saying that if the gods themselves still use swords, why wouldn't we?" Daguerre questioned.  
"It would mean that we know how to wield a weapon that they don't." Eva thought out loud.  
"What are those?" Bernard pointed at something on the next page.  
Everyone looked at what he was pointing. There were drawings of three animals. One looked like an orb with eight lines drawn from it, another looked like a wild and hairy man, and the final one looked like a winged lizard. Setuh opened his mouth to answer, but all five of them heard a rustling, which if they knew what a television was, they would recognize as static.  
"What is that?" Daguerre wondered.  
"It sounds like it comes from the living room." Eva said.  
Immediately, all five of them ran into the next room.  
The room itself didn't look like much to be proud of. The carpet was half-rotten, the couches looked dusty, and the small table in the middle looked like it could fall apart at any moment. Still, it was strong enough to hold one glass orb, that was placed on its center. Inside the orb, the entire group could see what looked like snow.  
"What's happening?"  
"Ivan, go get Lea." Bernard told him.  
Ivan nodded, and ran to fetch her.  
"Didn't Lea say it warn us of any danger?" Daguerre remembered.  
"She did." Eva replied.  
"No." Setuh remembered, "She said it warns HER of danger. She said nothing about us."  
"Exactly what I was thinking." Bernard said, "If it warns her of danger, it won't show us anything."  
A few seconds after he mentioned that, Lea burst into the room: "How long has it been doing that?"  
"Only just." Eva replied.  
As fast as she could (so fast it almost looked like she flew), Lea reached for the orb. She placed her right hand on it, picked it up, and as soon as it was on her eye-height, the static became more clear. In the orb, they could see what looked like a giant insect, buzzing its way across the streets.  
"Noyhe?" Bernard recognized him.  
"You know him?" Eva asked.  
"He's one of Cefabew's Mascots." Bernard explained, "And it looks like he's getting closer to us."  
"Then we better make sure he doesn't find us." Lea said, upon which she put the orb down again, and headed for the door, picking up her black cape on the way. The other four followed suit.


	4. Chapter 4

As he was buzzing above the streets, Noyhe became increasingly more anxious. Part of him wanted to find the monsters, so the Lowlander could take care of them, but on the other hand he hated to be acting like bait. Sure, the Lowlander explained to him that he's not being bait, he's just the only one of the two who'd be able to recognize the monsters if he saw them. So he had no choice but to go out to look for them. But as he was flying over the roofs of all the houses, he saw something approaching him from the right. Was it one of those sparrows on their way to the south? He looked, and saw it was nothing of the sorts. Whatever was flying at him didn't have feathers, or even a beak. It had a fleece and a mouse-like nose. In fact, the thing looked like a flying mouse. A bat? That could mean only one thing. In a panic, Noyhe turned around and flew away. But as it tried to do that, something grabbed hold of his leg. Before he could look down to see what cought him, he was already being pulled down.

With a loud and painful smack, Noyhe crashed on the concrete ground. As he tried to recover, he was already surrounded by the very people he wanted to find while at the same time avoid.  
"Are your bosses such sloths, they send one of their Mascots to find us?" Daguerre spoke.  
Noyhe tried to speak, but he could only manage to sputter a few words.  
"You shall not salivate that way to your king!" Setuh exclaimed.  
"I suppose killing just one of them was not a clear enough message." Lea said, as she raised her right hand, "Let us clarify it for them."  
All followed her example of raising their right hands. The very hands where they had their Ranger-machines. They placed their hands on their dials, turned it, then stuck their hands into the air. As lightning engulfed them, they changed their appearance. What at first looked like monsters, had now wore tight armors and helmets, each of which reflecting their true nature. They had changed into more powerful versions of themselves. Just to scare their target a little longer, they felt the need to tell him who they were.  
"Queen of the night. Monster Red!"  
"Face of the moon. Monster Blue!"  
"The unwanted child. Monster Green!"  
"The bringer of war and chaos. Monster Yellow!"  
"The mere shape of a man. Monster White!"  
The other four turned their heads in his direction: "What? I had other things to do."  
"Shingai Sentai." Monster Red called out.  
In unison, the five of them cried: "Monstranger!"  
A clap could be heard. A second later, another clap came. And another. All five of them shifted their heads, to see where that applause came from.  
"There!" Monster White pointed.  
Everyone looked at where he pointed. On top of the nearest roof, there sat what looked like a heavily scarred caveman.  
"Ganging up on one defenseless creature." the Lowlander said, "You should be ashamed of yourselves."  
"One innocent creature, who works for... I believe you call it the bigger picture." Monster Blue replied.  
"Would you rather we fought you?" Monster Green suggested.  
"You can come at me if you want." the Lowlander said.  
With this, he jumped off the roof. Once he was on the ground, he drew his sword. Immediately, Monster Yellow lashed out at him with his bandages. The Lowlander caught them, but used them to yank Monster Yellow closer. As soon as he was close enough, he was about to punch Monster Yellow, but Monster Green grabbed hold of his arm before he could any such thing. Monster White used his non-corporeal form to hover through the Lowlander. But as he hovered, the Lowlander held Monster Green and Yellow in front of him, so his cold attack affected them rather than himself. Monster White became corporeal again once he realized what he had done. Monster Blue jumped in the air, but the Lowlander grabbed Monster White and tossed him at Monster Blue. With those four down, he focused on the only remaining monster, Red.  
"Not in any spirit to fight?" the Lowlander asked.  
All four of the Monstrangers, while recovering from the attacks, tried lifting themselves to look at what was happening. In their last battle, it was Monster Red who saved them from certain doom. But this time, to their horror, Monster Red stood there, frozen, as if afraid to do anything. Monster White, particularly, looked at her hands, and noticed they were shaking.  
"Lea, what's wrong?"  
The Lowlander approached her, slowly. With every step he took, Monster Red seemed to be walking backwards herself.  
"That you were able to survive this long... I should really be congratulating you." he spoke.  
"Lea?" Monster Yellow spoke, "Do you know this primitive?"  
The Lowlander, ignoring what Monster Yellow just said, raised his sword: "There can be no other."  
Before anyone could do anything, Monster Red was grabbed from behind. This came as a complete surprise to everyone, but the black and furry look of the arms gave everyone an idea of who was doing this.  
"I got her." Noyhe's voice sounded from behind Lea, "Deztroy her now!"  
Monster Red, in so far that she could, looked at him. She stomped her foot on the bee's foot, causing him to let go of her. As he started jumping about, crying in agony over his hurt foot, the Lowlander ran to him, and hit him with the flat of his sword.  
"Fool!" he shouted, "I told you not to get in the way!"  
"I wazn't!" Noyhe cried, "I waz helping you."  
"This is between her and me." the Lowlander growled, "I don't need your help."  
"An opening." Monster Blue realized, "Everyone, now is our chance."  
"No!" Monster Red stopped him.  
This surprised all of the remaining four monsters.  
"What is the matter?" Monster Green wondered, "This isn't like you."  
Monster Red said nothing. Instead, she changed herself into a flock of bats, and made herself scarce.  
"Wait!" Monster White tried to stop her, but she was gone before he arrived at the very spot that stood on just seconds ago.  
"What is bothering her?" Monster Blue wondered.  
"Zhe's gone now." Noyhe told the Lowlander, "Now'z your chanze."  
The Lowlander used the dull end of his sword to knock Noyhe out. With that done, he left the scene."  
"Do you understand any of this?" Monster Yellow asked, "They hire a savage man to kill us, and yet he seems to have no interest in us whatsoever."  
"I wouldn't say that." Monster Green said, "He was interested in Lea."  
"But why, though?" Monster Blue wondered.  
"I'll ask her." Monster White told them.


	5. Chapter 5

Van Helsen and Easton saw what happened through the CCTV cameras. Easton, particularly, was unnerved by what he saw.  
"He had them, and he didn't take advantage of it?" he questioned, "And I thought he was supposed to be honorable?"  
"He must well be." Van Helsen told him, "He does not want to fight enemies tat are weaker tan him."  
"And what if they take over the world because he didn't do anything?" Easton reasoned, "Then what?"  
"Dr. Easton..." Van Helsen took on a more patronizing tone this time, "If he behaved himself like you described, would tat not make him like te bad guys? Would it not make us worse people tan tem?"  
"You don't get it, do you?" Easton replied.  
"Me?" Van Helsen wasn't convinced, "You want him to lose his human heart, just so he can defeat te monsters."  
"Look!" Welles interrupted the two, "You two can discuss this as much as you like, but you're both missing something."  
They both looked at Welles, puzzled about what he was saying.  
"Did you see how Drago reacted at the sight of him?" he asked them, "That was genuine fear. I didn't know she could be afraid of anything, or anyone."  
Van Helsen smiled: "Tat is good news. Monsters trive on otter people's fears. If we can tell otters about how afraid she is herself, tey would not fear her as much anymore."  
"And so she would become weaker." Easton realized.  
"Looks like we did the right thing with involving the Lowlander." Welles said.  
"It won't be long until we can defeat te monsters ourselves." Van Helsen laughed.

Away from the known civilization, Lea held her sword up against her dummy. But unlike last time, she didn't hold back on how she uses her sword. This time, she tried slicing at the dummy, as fast and as hard as she could, as if she believed it to be a living breathing creature, that had to be put down. This showcase of hers would baffle anyone who knew her and witnessed this, which was the case with Bernard. As he went to the room to check on her, she had already heavily mutilated the dummy.  
"Alright, stop!" Bernard came in between her and the dummy, "It was already a dead object, you can't kill it any more than..."  
"Leave me!" Lea shouted at him.  
"I'd love to." Bernard told her, "Believe me, I don't want to interrupt your pr..."  
"Then don't!" she snapped back at him.  
"But everyone is worried about you." Bernard pressed on, "I am worried.  
"You have nothing to worry about." Lea snarled, as she walked across the room, where more dummies were stored.  
"Lea, we just fought against a very strong enemy." Bernard continued, "And you wouldn't even..."  
"But you survived!" she interrupted.  
"Are you afraid of him?"  
Lea froze as that question was asked. Bernard then knew he hit the right nerve there.  
"Why?" he continued, "You're much older than him. My grandfather told me, you've been around since before humans started developing any sort of language. How can this one man be so scary?"  
"He's immortal." Lea finally answered.  
Bernard frowned: "So? We are immortal too."  
"No, you're not." Lea turned to look at him, "If your family didn't preserve his body, Daguerre would be dust by now. Eva doesn't age like humans do, but old age will get her eventually. Setuh can be resurrected. And you are already dead. I'm the only true immortal among you."  
Bernard needed some time to take it all in: "Okay, but what does all of this have to do with that wild man?"  
"The Lowlander, he may not be a vampire like me, but he is an immortal." she explained, "For some reason, he believes he should be the only one allowed to live forever. To him, there quite simply can be no other. That is why he's so hellbent on my death."  
"But so many others have tried." Bernard reasoned, "Like Van Helsen's ancestor."  
"This is different." Lea said, "Van Helsen had to rely on mere speculation as to how to kill me. That is why he failed. But the Lowlander... he's the only one who got as close as no one has before, to truly kill me."  
This much, Bernard could understand: "But that was years ago. You didn't have your Ranger-machine then."  
"This?" Lea held up the wrist around which she had her machine, "A good weapon for a new age. But this feud between me and the Lowlander... I have lived for thousands of years, have developed skills that many of my own kind can only dream of. Over time, I have become the very definition of fear, and I cannot win against a mud man like that with my own strength? I am sorry, Bernard, but if I need the Ranger-machine to defeat him, what kind of monster would that make me?"  
Bernard could see what she meant by all of this. It wasn't a question of fear, it was a matter of pride. But even so, if this Lowlander, as she kept calling him, was as strong as she has indicated, then all the practice in the world wouldn't help her.  
"Lea, please." Bernard tried to reason with her, "Nobody will blame you if you use the Ranger-machine. If you want, we won't tell anyone you used it."  
"I'll know." Lea replied, as she picked up one dummy.  
"So what?" Bernard asked, "You can have your..."  
He got interrupted as Lea walked through him. He turned around to look at her.  
"You really shouldn't let your pride dictate you."  
Lea raised her sword as he talked. Clearly, she had stopped listening to him. Not knowing what else to do, Bernard left the room.

Once he returned to the living room, where all the other Monsterangers were seated, he recounted the entire conversation with his comrades.  
"Then we should let her be." Daguerre said.  
"What?" Bernard couldn't understand, "But she won't survive!"  
Eva cackled: "You really are a novice, aren't you? Even if she were to die, at least people can talk about how she gave her opponent hell before she went down."  
"Is that more important to you?" Bernard questioned.  
"Even if one of us dies, it is important that people are still afraid of us." Daguerre explained, "So they will think twice before they decide to group together and lynch us. Lea understands this better than any one else."  
Bernard sighed.  
"I think I know why this Lowlander is so focused on bringing Lea to death." Setuh suddenly spoke, as he raised his head from behind the Necrobiblos.  
"You do?" Bernard wondered.  
"It says here..." he explained, "that many a centuries ago, many individuals had somehow started to age at a slower rate. Because they aged slower, even a mortal would would take much longer to kill them. As one of these men met another, they could sense each others' energy, and tried to steal it. They would fight until only one is left, that would absorb the others' energy. The more energy they absorb, the better their wounds, no matter how severe, would heal, and the slower they would age. And whosoever is left with all of the men's energies, would eventually be unable to die at all."  
"And this Lowlander is the only one left?" Eva asked.  
"It would seem that way." Setuh replied.  
"Then it doesn't surprise me that Lea had so much trouble defeating him." Daguerre said.  
"And this doesn't bother you at all?" Bernard asked.  
"Obviously, we don't want anything to happen to Lea." Eva answered, "But we don't want her to lose what is important to her either."  
Bernard let himself sink through the floor, as he soon realized there was no way to let these monsters see reason. He awoke them from their hibernation, because he was afraid they would be too vulnerable, and now it sounded like they wouldn't care if they, or at least their most respected friend were to die soon, at the hands of a strong enemy. Was there truly nothing he could do?


	6. Chapter 6

Throughout the house, even when their personal Re-Active was not doing anything to rebuild the mansion, many knocks and thuds could be heard. To anyone who knew what was happening, they would think that Lea was trying to destroy every single dummy they had. While it bothered everyone, nobody was worried. Nobody except Bernard. He thought Lea was being too busy with something had had a much more easy solution. He started pacing up and down his own room, wondering if there was really nothing he could do. So long was he at it, so busy was he with his thoughts, he didn't notice it when the sounds had stopped. Did she give up? Or had she exerted herself so much, she ran out of blood? Did she need help in any way? He left his room to check. But on his way, he heard a completely different sound. It sounded like a thunderclap, which came from outside. In itself that wouldn't be so strange, except that he didn't see any light that a lightning would have caused. Plus, while it sounded like thunder, he knew for sure it wasn't thunder. If anything, it sounded more like the sound the Ranger-machines make when they transform. Bernard flew through the walls, so he'd be outside much faster. At the front porch, he saw Monster Red, under the light of the moon, which reflected on the sword she held in her left hand. This allowed Bernard to notice she was keeping her right hand hidden under her left arm.  
"Lea?!" Bernard was both surprised and pleased.  
"Wake everyone up." Monster Red told him, "Tell them to come to quarry."  
Before Bernard could ask anything, Monster Red had already changed into a flock of bats and flew away. Bernard couldn't understand why she was being so secretive, but he could rest assured that Lea was making the right decision. He hovered back into the mansion to, as instructed, wake everybody up.

At Cefabew's headquarters, the Lowlander had found his way to the metal workshop, where he found a grinder, which he immediately used on his sword.  
"Zo..." Noyhe still hung around him, "What will you do when you've killed Lea Drago?"  
The Lowlander looked at Noyhe: "Why are you still here?"  
"Doctor Van Helzen told me you may ztill need my help." Noyhe explained.  
"I don't need anybody's help." the Lowlander growled.  
"Thoze that zay they don't need it, need it the mozt." Noyhe replied.  
The Lowlander stopped the grinder and raised his sword at the Mascot: "Do you have anything to say to those who hold a sword against your throat?"  
Noyhe shook his head, wondering why fortune cookies never give advise for when you're being threatened with a weapon. Just when the Lowlander lowered his sword, a bat flew into the room. Both of them were surprised when that happened, but not as much as they were when they noticed it dropped something. Before either of them could take a closer look at what the bat dropped, it had already flown away. The Lowlander approached the dropping. It was white and crumpled. It looked like a piece of paper. The Lowlander picked it up and read what was written on it.  
"What'z it zay?" Noyhe asked.  
"You want to help?" the Lowlander replied.  
Noyhe nodded wildly.  
"You can come and witness the death of Lea Drago."  
Noyhe's eyes widened: "I'll go tell Van Helsen."  
"Not yet." the Lowlander stopped him, "If you let him know, he'll send reinforcements. This is between her and me."  
In so far that Noyhe could understand the Lowlander's sense of honor, Noyhe agreed not to go to Van Helsen just yet.


	7. Chapter 7

The red rays of a rising sun began to creep up from the horizon, as Bernard, Eva, Daguerre and Setuh made their way onto the quarry. There, they was Monster Red, standing behind a sword, which was stuck in the rocks, while she held her right hand hidden under her left arm. Why, they couldn't know for sure, but the fact that she was transformed, pleased Bernard.  
"I knew she'd make the right decision." he said.  
Daguerre shook his head: "This isn't like her."  
"So?" Bernard said, "People can change."  
"Over night?" Daguerre questioned.  
Eva smiled: "Knowing her, she'll have her reasons to do what she does."

As they spoke, there was movement coming from the other side of the quarry. They all looked, and saw two more individuals coming. One that looked like a caveman, and one that looked like a bee. The Lowlander and Noyhe. They could not hear what they were talking about, but judging from the gestures they made, and the fact that Noyhe stayed behind while the Lowlander marched up to Monster Red, it told them that Noyhe was told to stay there and watch. As the Lowlander marched, something flew by. If he noticed it, he didn't look. Whatever it was, it flew toward Monster Red. Seeing it coming toward her, Monster Red raised her right arm. Bernard couldn't be certain, but it looked like there was something missing. The closer he looked, the more he realized that there was a stump where her hand should be. But as soon as the flying thing they saw got closer, it clung itself to the stump, and changed into her hand.  
"Best way to deliver a message, I'll say." the Lowlander spoke.  
Monster Red didn't reply. Instead, she turned the dial on her Ranger-machine, deactivating her suit. Bernard was shocked, but the other three grinned as they saw this. Now that Monster Red was Lea again, she loosened up the cape around her neck, dropped it on her right, then took off her Ranger-machine, which she placed onto the cape.  
"Just you and me." Lea said, "And our swords. Nothing and no one else."  
"Wouldn't have it any other way." the Lowlander smiled.  
Lea drew her sword from the rocks, while the Lowlander drew his from his own skins. Both raised their swords as they looked each other in the eyes. They remembered the last time they were in this situation. She had a more smug expression on her face at the time, while he was almost insecure, seeing as he never fought a vampire before. And here they now stood, the roles completely reversed. But neither want to let that stop them. Lea started running toward him, screaming the air out of her lungs, while the Lowlander just ran, but other than his footsteps on the rocks, didn't make any sound. Everyone who could, held their breath as they saw the two swords clash for the first time in centuries. Sparks flew, but before even one of them had hit the ground, the two fighters had swung their swords for another attack. Lea aimed for his shoulder, but the Lowlander stopped her, pushed her sword away, making room so he could swing his sword toward her neck. Lea ducked, spinning around her own axis, trying to hit his side, but the Lowlander saw that attack coming, so he blocked it. As soon as that attack stopped, he kicked her hard, causing her to almost fly away from him. She landed back-first onto the hard rocks, feet in the air.

As Bernard looked, he noticed something which he had pointed out to her before. She was still wearing those five-inch heels.  
"Why does she insist at wearing those?" he wondered, "Doesn't she see how unpractical they are?"  
Nobody reacted, as they were more interested in what the Lowlander was about to do.

The Lowlander ran toward Lea, who quickly got up from her fall. He made his sword drop on her, but she stepped aside, raising her sword up to his chest. But as she did so, the Lowlander quickly turned his sword and swung it to his left, cutting her arm. Lea screams in agony, but she wasn't planning on giving up. She thrust her sword forward, but the Lowlander pushed it down, which left him too distracted to see her raising her fist to punch him in the face. Though he felt that, he didn't falter. He lunged forward, grabbed her by her hair, so he could allow himself to hit her head with his. It was a hard hit, which disoriented them both. But the Lowlander was the quickest to recover. He picked up a rock, which he held tightly in his hand as he punched Lea, first in the stomach, then her face.

Blood could be seen leaving her through her arm, belly, and mouth. More than before, Bernard was worried. And this time, he saw the worry on the looks of his friends too.  
"He's killing her!" he said.  
"We are not amused by this either." Setuh admitted.  
"Well then?"  
"As long as there is still no clear winner, we can't do anything." Daguerre reminded him.  
Bernard still couldn't believe how passive they were about this.  
"Do not worry." Eva said, "If she loses, that thing will get what he deserves."

Lea fell to the ground, coughing up blood. She looked at her sword, which she dropped about two meters away from herself. She stretched out her arm, reaching for it, only to see it completely covered in blood, making her wonder where the sleeve of her shirt had gone to.  
The Lowlander walked around her: "If you give up now, nobody will hold it against you. They will all say that you took the easiest way out of this fight."  
Lea snarled, pushed herself onto her feet and jumped him. This surprised even the Lowlander, as he too dropped his sword. Lea punched his face as much as she could, as strongly as she could. But no matter what she did to him, he didn't seem to feel any of it. After letting her do this for a half a minute, he simply pushed himself up, forcing her off, and to fall hard on her back again. As he stood over her, he stomped her on her stomach, incapacitating her even more.

Before her friends' eyes, Lea's opponent picked up his sword. As he raised it above his head, about ready to slash it down, Eva looked away, as she couldn't bear to see her friend being killed like this. Normally, Daguerre would tell her to watch, but he too was too shocked about the outcome. Setuh, inside his own head, tried to remember if there was any spell in his Necrobiblos that would allow him to resurrect a vampire. Bernard's thoughts were overly emotional, as he knew that they could have done more, but everyone kept advising against it. He knew they were monsters, but why should that mean that they shouldn't help their friends out when necessary?

The Lowlander took one last look at Lea, who stared back at him, her spite evident in her eyes, the Lowlander couldn't help but snicker at the sight of that. Allowing all his strength to build up in his arms, he savored this moment, only to then let his sword strike down. From his point of view, it looked like time was slowing down, almost like he subconsciously wanted this moment to last longer than it really did. Midway his strike, it even felt like time stood still for a brief moment. Until he realized something was wrong. Time didn't just stand still, he did. A pain burrowed itself in his belly. What was going on? He looked, and saw Lea's leg. Somehow, she found the strength in her leg to kick him right there. Before he realized it, she kicked his head with her other leg. But this kick didn't feel like any other. It was like she had something sharp attached to her foot, which stabbed its way into his cheek. Lea retracted her legs while the Lowlander spun around, holding his hands to his cheek and his belly.

Lea's friends were more cheerful this time, as Lea had managed to turn the tables. Bernard particularly looked as Lea got back on her feet. Speaking of which, he noticed how her heels were covered in blood. While he couldn't be sure, something told him that blood wasn't hers.

Lea picked up the Lowlander's sword, with which she sliced his back. The Lowlander turned around, only for his face to meet with the flat of his own sword, and for Lea to cut the hole in his belly more widely open. Trying to keep his belly in one piece, Lea proceeded to cut his knees, giving him almost literally no leg to stand on. As he knelt down, Lea dropped his sword, only to pick up her own. With her own sword tightly in her hands, she stood herself before him, her eyes locking onto his.  
"There can be no other..." she whispered, as she raised her sword, and made one final attack.

Her friends watched, as the Lowlander's body grew limp. His arms fell down next to his body, as his brains was no longer giving it any orders to move. A thud could be heard, before the large body fell forward, and moved no longer. All of them looked at Lea, who had lowered her sword, its tip now smeared with blood. Lea's mouth tried to form a smile, but her attempt drained her body from what little energy it had left. She was starting to get unsteady on her own feet. Bernard couldn't stand watching this any more. He hovered his way down to her, activated his Ranger-machine, but only to allow himself to have a corporeal body, so he could pick up Lea's cape and machine, and ran to her as fast as he could, catching her just in time before she hit the ground.  
"I got you!" he said, as he helped her sit down, then covered her with her own cape.  
"You succeeded in killing your nemesis." Daguerre said as he joined the party.  
"You had Bernard worried there for a time." Eva said.  
"And you weren't?" Bernard snapped back.  
"Not as much as you were." Eva laughed.  
Lea had stopped listening to either of them, as she noticed movement at the distance. That bee that accompanied the Lowlander the whole time, he was still there. Even though she killed the man who almost killed her, she felt this wasn't over yet. She put her Ranger-machine around her wrist again.  
"It's not over yet." she whispered.


	8. Chapter 8

Noyhe was shocked when he saw his friend losing his head like that. Still, he was able to draw solace from the fact that Lea Drago was about to fall down, but before she hit the ground, he saw her friends arrive, and helped her up. He couldn't understand it. These people are so dangerous, have no problem with killing others, even ganging up on him, and yet they can somehow be each others' friends? It made no sense to him. But when he saw Lea point at him, he knew he had outstayed his welcome. He quickly turned around and started flapping his wings. Despite his best efforts, however, he wouldn't lift off the ground. He kept thinking about what happened to the Lowlander. As a bee, he already wasn't supposed to be able to fly, according to every aerodynamic law, and now that he was in a highly emotional state, he couldn't focus any harder now to make himself airborne. He took several steps, his wings made several flaps, but he would not lift off. Hearing the monsters transform didn't help speed things up, it only made him panic even more. So much so, he didn't notice the larger boulder, over which he tripped. Hoping the monsters were still quite a distance away, he turned his head to look. They weren't. In full Monstranger gear, they were closing in on him, slowly, but surely. But as that was happening, he saw some strange lights behind them.  
"What iz that?" Noyhe wondered, pointing behind them.  
Aside from Monster White, all of them kept their eyes fixed on Noyhe.  
"Do you really think we're that much behind the times that we'd fall for that?" Monster Green asked him.  
"Eh..." Monster White started, "You might want to fall for it now."  
Wondering what he was talking about, the Monstrangers turned around to look. Before their very eyes, the Lowlander's body was being plagued by bolts of lightning. Each of which made his body twitch, harder and faster with every passing second. Within a thirty seconds, however, the bolts of lightning had formed a light-orb around the Lowlander's body, which started to grow larger. No less than ten seconds later, the orb had taken on the size of a giant. This was when the lightnings disappeared, revealing the Lowlander, back in one piece, alive, angrier than before, and a hundred times taller. No sooner had the Lowlander realized his new advantage, and already he began trying to step on the Monstrangers. They managed to dodge the attack, but they knew that wouldn't last long.  
"Lea, can you make us disappear in smoke, like you did before?" Monster White asked.  
"I don't know." Monster Red answered, "I need some time to recover from that fight."  
"I've got an idea." Monster Blues said, "Let me distract him."  
Upon saying so, Monster Blue allowed his hands and feet to grow claws, after which he jumped into the air, set his claw into the Lowlander's leg, which the latter felt. He tried to squish Monster Blue like an insect, but much like an insect, Monster Blue saw that attack coming far in advance, so he jumped to the other leg. From there, he climbed up to the Lowlander's arm, from which he finally made his way to the giant's face, which he began to scratch wildly. This only mildly annoyed the Lowlander, however, and he saw this as an opportunity to grab hold of Monster Blue, and toss him away. With him gone, he could focus himself on the other monsters... who had already vanished. More agitated than ever, he stomped his foot on the ground, causing a minor earthquake.

At Cefabew, Van Helsen was taking care of some paperwork, when he felt a slight tremor. Wondering what that was about, he picked up his phone and dialed a number.  
"Welles, is anybody conducting any experiments tat I know notting of?" he asked.  
"No, Doctor." was the reply.  
"Ten what was tat shock I just felt?"  
"I don't know." Welles answered.  
As soon as he heard that, a light started blinking on his phone. Van Helsen looked at the name that was printed next to the light, and wondered to himself what he could need. Without saying anything to Welles, he pressed the button: "Yes, Doctor Easton?"  
"I think you might want to look outside your window." Easton told him.  
Wanting to know why, he looked. At first he thought it was a trick of the mind, so he put his phone down and got up from his desk to take a closer look. As he got closer, he could believe less and less of what he was seeing. In his window stood the Lowlander, but judging from the position of all the buildings, meadows and mountains, it almost looked like he had become a giant. Tat is not possible, Van Helsen thought to himself. But no matter what he told himself, it didn't change what was in front of him. The Lowlander had quite literally become a giant. How did it happen? Why? Was this some hidden talent of his?

Meanwhile, the Monstrangers had returned to their mansion, where they immediately took off their helmets. Doing so, allowed Ivan to see the state that Lea was in.  
"Miss Drago! Are you all right?" he shouted, worried.  
"Bring me five bags of blood!" she ordered at him.  
"What happened there, anyway?" Eva wondered, "How could the Lowlander just turn into a giant?"  
"Maybe it was all the energy he had gathered through the centuries." Setuh explained, "With him dead, but nobody to collect it, it had to go somewhere. But why it changed him into a giant, I cannot fathom."  
"Maybe it was his last wish." Bernard speculated, "Even when the head gets detached from the body, the brain will still live for a couple of seconds."  
"With his power, it may have lasted longer than that." Daguerre said.  
"Long enough for him to decide to use his power like that." Setuh completed, "Seems likely."  
"So now that we know how he did it, what can we do against him?" Eva asked.  
"There may be one thing we can do." Setuh said, "Remember that picture of those animals I showed you before?"  
"You mean that spider, gorilla and dragon?" Bernard asked.  
"It should be possible for us to summon those animals, temporarily fuse ourselves with them, and use their strength to fight against the giant Lowlander."  
"Sounds exactly like what we should do." Eva spoke.  
"Wait just a moment." Daguerre said, "Those are three animals, and there are five of us."  
"Then you'll just have to share your animals." Lea ordered.  
"Us?" Bernard questioned.  
"I'm stronger than I look, Bernard."  
"But you're still weak from that fight."  
"Once Ivan gave me my blood, I should be alright." Lea replied, "Besides, I'm the only one who has experience in flying, so only I can control that dragon."  
"I'm the strongest, so I should be that gorilla." Eva said.  
"And I know a thing or two about wild animals, so I should join you there." Daguerre said.  
"That leaves us with the spider?" Bernard questioned.  
"Excellent." Setuh thought this was settled, "Now, all you have to do is summon the animals saying the words from the Necrobiblos."  
"Which are?" Eva asked.  
"I can't say them now, we might summon them in the house." Setuh said, "I'll have to show you the words."  
"Eh, Setuh?" Bernard stopped him, "Those symbols in the Necrobiblos are from a dead language. We can't read them."  
"What do you mean? You could read them when you resurrected me." Setuh reasoned.  
"That's because my ancestors had written the words down in an alphabet that I could read." Bernard explained.  
"It may be best if you did the same for us." Lea said, before Setuh could give any sort of response.  
"As you wish." Setuh agreed.


	9. Chapter 9

He could not believe it. As his brain was shutting down, his will to stay alive, at least long enough to finish what he had started, was still too strong to just fade away. This translated itself into all the powers he had absorbed from all others like him, and allowed him to turn into a giant. He didn't know that, but as soon as he was a giant, he saw the benefits in his new situation. He could not only trample his enemies like he would an insect, he could see much further than before, so if his targets were to run away, he could see them run. Unfortunately, his enemies were too smart for that. They managed to distract him enough, he lost track of them long before he realized he lost sight of them. The only one that is in his immediate vicinity, was the humanoid bee.  
"Where did they go?" he asked him.  
"I don't know." Noyhe's buzzing voice sounded quiet, despite the fact that he looked like he was screaming at the top of his lungs, "They knocked me on the head, zo I couldn't zee where they were going."  
"They couldn't have gone far." the Lowlander howled, "Drago is too weak, and the others can't hope to outrun me."  
"That'z the zpirit!" Noyhe spoke, his shouting voice barely a whisper to the Lowlander.  
The Lowlander looked about himself. Beyond the quarry, he could see the buildings of the nearest city, unaware that one of them is Cefabew's main headquarters, and that the people inside that building were watching him. He looked past the buildings, into the horizons. He could see more from this point than he could ever hope to see from his human-eye view.  
"Uh... Lowlander?" he heard the buzzing next to his ear. He stepped away, and saw Noyhe, fluttering around his head. Noyhe didn't say anything, but he pointed behind the Lowlander. He turned, and saw three distinct shapes at a distance. One looked like it had multiple legs, and was crawling, another seemed to be placing two legs forward, then two larger ones followed, and a third one was airborne. The closer they got, the more they took on the shapes of things he recognized. Respectively, he was looking at one giant spider, one giant gorilla, and one huge dragon. As those animals were getting nearer, he saw them moving across building, over people, who were running and screaming in a panic. This angered the Lowlander, who ran toward the animals, as fast as his body, and the planet's gravity, could allow him to. As he came near, the giant spider spat something, which fell on his feet. He didn't think much of it, until he could move his feet no longer. Stuck like this, he could do very little when the gorilla decided to raise its fists and deal its punches. As he tried fighting back, the dragon lowered itself to look the Lowlander straight in the eyes.  
"Give it up." it spoke, with a heavy, though somehow feminine voice, "You have already lost."  
Despite the slight distortion, the Lowlander recognized the voice: "Drago? I should have known. Only you would be so bold."  
This time, he let the gorilla punch him. This way, when its fists hit him, he could grab it by its arms. When the dragon started to exhale its fiery breath, the Lowlander tossed the gorilla toward it. The dragon stopped breathing fire, but it was too late. The gorilla hit the dragon hard, and it couldn't stay airborne. The spider tried an attack of its own, but only then did the Lowlander find the strength to release its feet, and kicked the spider. It landed on top of the other two monsters. With them down, the Lowlander decided he had to kill them as fast as possible.  
"Is there a large, heavy rock I can use..." he growled to himself.

The three giant monsters tried to recover from the blow they just received. The gorilla was the first to speak, somehow with two voices: "It's not working."  
"What gave you that idea." the spider replied, also with two voices.  
"Is there any way we can summon a stronger monster?" the dragon asked.  
"There is one." the spider replied, "But I don't recommend it."  
As they spoke, the Lowlander had already found his large boulder, and started to pick it up.  
"Does it look like we have a choice?" the dragon asked.  
The spider shook its tiny head (tiny compared to the rest of its body): "I suppose we do not. Everyone repeat after me..."

The Lowlander could hear them whisper, but he didn't that anything they could do now would make any sort of difference. He raised his boulder, when he heard the monsters exclaim: "Ya vulgtlagln uln gnaiih."  
Did the monsters just lose their minds, the Lowlander wondered, as they started to speak gibberish. He decided to not let that distract him, but as he made his way toward them, something incredible happened. The three monsters started to float off the ground. The dragon didn't flap its wings, it didn't carry the gorilla or the spider, and yet all three were flying. Before his very eyes, the gorilla turned upside down, twisting its arms in such a way that they started to look more like legs, while his actual legs had retracted themselves inside its body, as did its head. The dragon's wings stayed the way they were, while its body turned around its axis, its long neck bending to form a right arm, while the long tail became a left arm. This deformed dragon placed itself on top of the strangely formed gorilla, and suddenly it looked like the two had become one whole body, where only the head was missing. The spider placed itself on top of the dragon-arms, its legs moving to the front, while its body opened up to reveal a head. This one body, if possible, looked even more horrifying than the three monsters it was before. It looked like a part scaly, part furry beast, with wings on its back, and tentacles where the mouth should be. The Lowlander dropped his boulder at the same time as when the monster landed back on the ground.  
"Great Katulhu has arrived." it said, using five voices at once.  
Once the Lowlander heard it call its own name, he regained his composure, as though knowing its name made it less scary. Katulhu took one step closer to the Lowlander, who started tossing smaller stones to the giant in front of him. One after another hit Katulhu, but he seemed to either feel none of them, or he didn't care to be hit by them. With that, the Lowlander lifted up his larger boulder, and heaved it at the monstrosity. Katulhu used his wings to cover his head, and as the boulder hit them, it broke into millions of pieces. Realizing this attack didn't work, the Lowlander decided upon a different strategy. He ran toward the monster before him.  
Katulhu raised his right hand above his head and spoke: "Sog-Yoth."  
From the air above it, a large sword appeared. Katulhu grabbed it and slashed at the Lowlander with it. The Lowlander stopped as soon as he felt the sword hit. It didn't feel like a sword hit him, it felt like a dog sinking its teeth into his flesh, only worse somehow. He would have fallen to the ground in pain, but his Lowlander pride would not allow him to fall like that. Katulhu saw this, and so he held his sword with both hands. He drew one perfect circle in the air, as the sword lit up like a flashlight, getting progressively brighter as it moved. As soon as it made its way back into the air, Katulhu struck it down, cutting its way through the Lowlander, from his right shoulder, down to his left side. This was too much for even the Lowlander to bear. With all his strength and pride destroyed, he fell down, the energy that had kept him alive for many centuries obliterating him.

Noyhe, who witnessed all the events closely, was even more saddened to see his friend die a second time. But this time, there was something much worse than five human-sized monsters. He decided he'd better buzz off, and let Van Helsen know what had transpired here.


	10. Chapter 10

"How could tis happen?" Van Helsen asked his colleagues, who had gathered in his office to discuss the recent events, "How can the Lowlander turn into a giant, and how can the monsters call on Katulhu?"  
Everyone in the room, namely Easton, Welles and Feuerstein, had no answer at the ready.  
"Katulhu is known for being completely indifferent about life in general." Easton said, "So for him to join forces with them... just imagine what they can do with him."  
"How can we fight them now?" Van Helsen panicked.  
"There may be a way." Feuerstein suggested, "It's possible that whatever it was that kept the Lowlander alive, is what gave him the power to take on larger sizes. If we could somehow replicate that..."  
"You forget one thing." Welles interrupted him, "We never had a chance to examine him properly. So we have nothing to replicate."  
"In otter words, when the monsters call Katulhu, we can't stop tem?" Van Helsen needed to hear the exact words being said.  
"Indeed." Welles replied.  
Easton sighed at the sound of that: "We only just finished getting the Re-Actives to obey only us, and now another problem rears its ugly head. Those monsters are relentless."  
A loud knock on the door sounded, and Van Helsen replied: "Come in!"  
Everyone looked surprised when they heard their visitor buzzing its way into the office: "Doctor Van Helzen! You woulnd't believe what juzt happened!"  
"Don't bother, Noyhe." Feuerstein said, "We all saw..."  
Noyhe didn't listen to him: "The Lowlander waz fighting feroziouzly with that vampire woman..."  
Despite the words of everyone in the room, Noyhe kept talking, mimicking as best as he could all the sounds and moves that the fighters made, all in grave detail.  
"That's all fine and good..." Easton said.  
"I thought it waz all over for the Lowlander." Noyhe ignored Easton, "Zo did the monsterz, who were then about to kill me, but the Lowlander, I don't know how, he muzt have known I waz in trouble, zo he brought himzelf back to life. He made all theze lightningz appear, and he grew into a huge man..."  
"He used lightning?" Welles asked, suddenly more interested than anyone.  
"Yez!" Noyhe was thrilled that at least he listened.  
"Why?" Van Helsen wondered, "Is that important?"  
"Lightning that would cause something like that, it would cause a number of strange weather-patterns." Welles explained, "Patterns that would have been caught by any weather-station. If we can find out what they detected, we may have a way of replicating what the Lowlander did."  
Van Helsen sank back in his chair, relieved: "A man of honor, indeed. Even when he dies, he must leave us someting to stay on the fight."

While Cefabew was discussing the current situation, the monsters had returned to their mansion, relieved that this was finally over.  
"I really can't understand why you were so reluctant to summon Katulhu." Eva brought up, "He's amazing! Now, we can just use him to crash Cefabew's..."  
"No! We can't!" Setuh interrupted her.  
Everybody was taken aback at his sudden outburst.  
"What do you mean?" Bernard asked him, "If we destroy Cefabew's headquarters, we have nothing to worry about."  
"I'm not saying we shouldn't do that." Setuh replied, "But we can't use Katulhu to do that."  
"Why?" Bernard asked.  
"Indeed, he is powerful." Setuh answered, "And yes, he could solve many of our problems. But one day we will have to pay the price for his services."  
This caused everyone to look worried. Daguerre was the first to speak: "What might that price be?"  
"I don't know." Setuh answered, "The Necrobiblos isn't that explicit."  
"Then how does the writer know there is a price to pay?" Daguerre asked.  
"Maybe it is so horrible, he didn't want to write about it." Lea suggested, "Or maybe it's different depending on who it is that summons him."  
"So if we use him, it best keep it at a minimum." Bernard understood.  
"But can we still use those animals as much as we like?" Eva wondered.  
Setuh thought about this for a moment: "There is nothing in the book about paying a price for them."  
"My dear Eva..." Lea hissed, as she sat herself down in the living room armchair, "I thought you grew out of playing with puppets?"  
"I don't." Eva snapped back, "I just wanted to have a pet that can match up to my own strength."  
"Why did you not say so before?" Daguerre asked her, "I could always change into my wolf-form and fight you every now and then."  
"That is not the same, and you know it!" Eva retorted.  
"Maybe you two should be less concerned about trivial matters, and wonder how far along the repairs on the house are."  
Eva took a quick look: "The stairs look fixed."  
"I wouldn't be so sure." Daguerre told her, "Maybe we should find Ivan first. He could tell us when it is safe."  
"An excellent thought." Setuh agreed.  
"What are we waiting for?" Eva already made her way through the house, looking for Ivan, and Daguerre and Setuh followed.

With those three gone, Bernard turned to Lea, who had made herself comfortable on the armchair. She raised her left leg to rest on her right leg, leading Bernard to notice her shoes again. The blood that was on them before had already dried up. It reminded him of something he said about those shoes of her before. With that in the back of his mind, he slowly hovered his way to Lea.  
"Lea?" he was still careful in his approach.  
Lea sighed, even covered her eyes with her right hand, as if hearing his voice gave her a headache: "What is it, Bernard."  
"Nothing." he replied, "It's just... I know I have said some things before. I thought I was acting out of concern for you. Which I was, but... I guess, what I'm trying to say is that I underestimated you."  
Lea smiled, more friendlier this time, then lowered her hand, only to let her chin rest on it: "Thank you. Many others have done so before you."  
Bernard scoffed, even looked away, somewhat embarrassed to look at her directly: "I guess I should have known better. Like you said, you've been around for a lot longer than the spoken language. And vampires are a rarity. You would not have lived as long as you have without developing some survival skills. Even be able to use what many consider an inconvenience as a deadly weapon. You really are the most..."  
He stopped talking, as he noticed Lea's eyes had shut themselves. This didn't surprise him in the least. Not only because vampires are nocturnal and sleep during the day, but she also spent most of the night, and even the day before, training herself to kill her centuries-old rival. And even the fight with him, both before and after he turned into a giant, it would have drained all the power out of her. Even the blood-bags she fed herself with could only do so much. He shrugged, and decided to join the other three. But as he turned, he caught something in the corner of his eye. There was Lea's crystal orb, which helped them detect the danger before. He wasn't sure how or why, but it only showed a clear picture when it was in Lea's left hand. With that in mind, he turned the dial on his Ranger-machine halfway, so he could pick the orb up from the table, and gently (so to not wake her up) put it into Lea's hand. This way, should anything come up, they'd be able to see it immediately, and not wait for Lea to show it to them. With that taken care of, he switched off his machine and left the living room.

Bernard will have wished he had stayed in the living room for a few seconds longer. Because as soon as he left, an image became visible in the orb. It was round, white around the edge, black at its center, with a thick blue edge. It was en eye, which looked around the living room, then at the woman holding the orb. It held its gaze for five seconds, before disappearing.

**THE END**


End file.
